


Buttercup

by Springsteen



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-28
Packaged: 2018-06-05 02:31:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6685681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Springsteen/pseuds/Springsteen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Ransom and Holster graduate, Dex and Nursey move into the attic. Putting furniture together is more difficult than it should be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Buttercup

**Author's Note:**

> The characters of [Check Please!](http://omgcheckplease.tumblr.com/) were created by the amazingly talented Ngozi.  
> The first few lines were originally posted on my tumblr.  
> A brief (musically eclectic) playlist for your listening enjoyment: [one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iol0B-clFFM) [two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7p1p66v8k8) [three](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_3d6GntKbk).

Tango stood in the Haus kitchen, enjoying a slice of Bitty’s first pie of the year. Slowly, he looked up at the ceiling, where he could hear repeated banging and muffled shouts. “Is somebody, uh… having sex up there?” he asked.

Chowder frowned. “Dex and Nursey are moving into the attic,” he said. “Maybe somebody should go check on them…”

“I think they’re trying to put together a bookcase,” Bitty said. “We probably shouldn’t interrupt-”

“ _What do you mean it’s not gonna fit_?!”

_X_

Dex glared at Nursey, holding a tape measure like he was considering throwing it at him. “I mean I didn’t know I would need every tool in my dad’s garage to put together a bookshelf. And would you stop with the hammer!”

“Why?” Nursey asked. “Pretty sure if I hit it hard enough it’ll slide right in.”

“First of all,” Dex said, grabbing Nursey’s shoulder and dragging him away from the bookshelf, “if you use a hammer like that you’re gonna break it. You should be using a rubber mallet. Second of all, I could’ve built something like this and saved us a whole lot of trouble.”

Nursey grinned, letting his arm fall to his side. The hammer fell to the floor with a clunk. “Are you telling me you can’t put together a bookshelf that came in a box? Look, it’s even got instructions. I think.”

“You don’t need instructions to build a bookshelf!” Dex yelled. “It’s not that hard!”

Dex knew he would want to punch Nursey in the next eight seconds based on the smirk on his face. “Prove it.” He crossed his arms smugly, like he thought that’s all it would take to convince Dex to put the whole thing together himself. Dex’s gaze caught on Nursey’s bicep, on the zigzagging lines of his tattoo circling muscles that he was pretty sure had grown over the summer. It was already hot up in the attic, and Dex could feel his face heating up. He wiped it with the hem of his shirt and groaned.

“Fine,” he said. “Fine. Either bring me a mallet or let’s go to Home Depot.” He threw his tape measure at his toolbox, where it clattered satisfyingly against the metal side. “Or _you_ can put this damn thing together since you’re the one who bought it.”

Nursey glared at him. “I was trying to put it together and you were yelling at me!”

“Because you were doing it wrong!” Dex yelled. “Just-here.” He walked to Nursey’s desk and grabbed a notebook. The cover was supple black leather; it was definitely more expensive than the spiral-bound ones Dex used. “Hold this in front of the bookshelf and smash away.”

“What the fuck, man,” Nursey said, grabbing the notebook. “That’s my journal.”

“Chill, man,” Dex said scathingly. “It’s your bookshelf, smash it up, whatever.”

Nursey sighed, dropping his notebook back on his desk. He took off his snapback and ran a hand through his hair. “But you’re actually, like, _good_ at this stuff.” Oh fuck no, Nurse was not about to guilt him into doing this.

“That doesn’t mean I’m gonna waste my time putting this shit together for you,” he said. 

“This is our room!” Nursey yelled, suddenly crossing to him. “Don’t you wanna have nice stuff?”

“Nice stuff isn’t this hard to make,” Dex insisted. “I don’t know what this shit is!”

“It’s a bookshelf, Poindexter,” Nursey said. Dex ground his teeth together, a terrible habit he’d tried to quit ever since he met Nursey. He couldn’t stand his oppressive chill attitude, his useless chirps, or this disaster of a piece of furniture.

“It’s a fuckin’ pile of useless particle board!” Dex kicked the box and it skittered across the floor, a small bag sliding out halfway across the room. Both of them stared at it in silence, a few heartbeats of calm.

“Huh,” Nursey said quietly. 

“Nursey,” Dex said, his voice terrifyingly quiet, “what the _hell is that_?”

“Bro, don’t even try to make this my fault.” He picked up the bag and examined its contents, then looked at the sheet of “instructions,” nothing more than a series of tiny black and white photos. “I think these hold it together?” Dex closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten in his head. He was absolutely not thinking about strangling his roommate. Not even a little bit. When he opened his eyes, Nursey had fitted two of the metal pieces into the corners of the bookshelf, but was still struggling to fit the shelf in place. 

Dex walked over to him, because now that there are brackets holding the corners in place, it’s incredibly obvious. “Nurse, that’s the top.”

“What?” Nursey turned to look at Dex, still holding the piece at a terrible angle trying to fit it in as a shelf.

“This,” Dex said, grabbing the wood from Nursey’s hand, “is the top of the bookshelf. That’s why it doesn’t fit in the middle.” He set down the piece and picked up a different one, fitting it into the bookshelf without too much difficulty. Nursey put two more brackets in the corners a little higher up, and Dex fit the next shelf into place.

“See, we don’t need any fancy tools,” Nursey said, smiling. “This is totally chill.”

“Five minutes ago you were beating the shit outta this thing with a hammer,” Dex said. “And if I had ‘fancy tools’ I could build something way nicer than this.”

Nursey snickered, almost laughing too hard to speak. “Bro, don’t be such a tool.”

“Oh my god, that was terrible, even for you,” Dex said. He tried not to laugh, but Nursey’s smile was infectious. “I can’t believe I’m gonna be living with such a loser for the next two years.”

“Yeah, because you’re such a ray of sunshine,” Nursey said, fitting in the brackets for the next shelf.

Dex slammed the next shelf into place a little more forcefully than necessary. “Are you kidding? I’m a great roommate. At least when I pull all nighters I’ll be in the CS lab, so I won’t keep you up all night.”

Nursey tapped his fingers against a bracket. “I wouldn’t mind you keeping me up all night,” he said, smiling just like usual, though there was something different about the way he looked at Dex.

“You’re so chill you don’t even need to sleep?” Dex held another shelf loosely, letting his arm hang down at his side. “What, did you give up now that we’ve finally figured out how to put this thing together?”

Nursey snapped two more brackets into place so Dex could install the another shelf. “That’s not what I meant, bro,” Nursey said. Dex turned around, surprised to see Nursey so close. The attic wasn’t a huge space, and the sloped ceilings made it feel even smaller, but he knew Nursey hadn’t been that close to him before. He wondered if the air conditioning had broken, or if the attic would always be this miserably hot, as he pulled at the collar of his t-shirt. He was pretty sure Nursey watched the brief flash of his collarbones - or maybe he was hallucinating due to heat stroke, and there was no way this damn bookshelf was worth that kind of trouble.

“For an English major, you’re pretty shit at effective communication,” he said, because when Nursey was around chirps were the only thing Dex let himself say. He wasn’t sure who had started it their freshman year, but back then it had been a competition, less chirps and more arguments that had shaken the whole team. Over time the arguments had faded in intensity. They weren’t actively trying to hurt each other anymore, but Dex didn’t know how to interact with Nursey without bickering. It wasn’t that he was a mean person, or even that he didn’t want to be nice to Nursey; they were friends now, and they were playing together really well on the ice. Regardless of how he felt about Nursey, he didn’t want to do anything that would bring them back to having vicious arguments every two minutes. He definitely wouldn’t risk it all over the fluttering in his stomach, the way the tank top Nursey wore was cut so low and hung off him so loosely he might as well have not worn a shirt at all, the feelings he’s been denying for over a year now.

“Effective communication,” Nursey repeated mockingly, jolting Dex out of his thoughts. “Fine, I’ll show you effective.” He grabbed the front of Dex’s shirt and dragged him forward, crashing their lips together. Their teeth collided and Nursey was still holding a bracket, which kind of stabbed Dex’s chest, but he absolutely did not care. Dex wrapped his hands around Nursey’s neck, thumbs brushing against the stubble on his jaw as he tilted his head and _there_ , that was perfect. Nursey pressed closer and closer, until Dex lost his balance and stumbled backwards, right into the bookshelf. It wobbled unsteadily then toppled over, falling to the floor with a crash. 

“Whoops,” Nursey muttered, grinning. 

“I can fix that,” Dex said before kissing Nursey’s smiling lips. He felt Nursey grin, felt the expression slide away as he caught Dex’s lip between his teeth. Dex’s hands slid from Nursey’s neck down his chest and tangled in the collar of his shirt, hanging stupidly low over his pecs. He tried to pull Nursey away from the bookcase on the floor and towards the bunk beds, but Nursey lifted his arms and let Dex pull his shirt off instead and, hey, he was definitely not complaining about that.

“Fair’s fair, bro,” Nursey said, hooking his fingers under the hem of Dex’s shirt and pulling it up over his head, flinging it somewhere behind him. He was staring as he trailed his fingers down Dex’s body, gentler than he’d ever expected, tracing lines between his freckles. Dex took advantage of their location and pushed Nursey against the wall, biting kisses down his neck and across his chest. 

“Whew, it is hotter’n Hades up here. You boys alright? That was quite the...crash.” Dex was very distracted sucking a hickey into Nursey’s chest, just high enough it would peek out over the collar of the stupid tank tops he wore in the summertime. Nursey’s fingers tightened in his hair just as he realized they were no longer alone in the attic. “Oh my sweet Lord in heaven,” Bitty said from the doorway. Dex pulled back until his lips barely brushed against skin, looking up at Nursey without really moving. Nursey whimpered quietly above him and loosened his grip on Dex’s hair, trailing his fingers down his neck to his shoulders. There was no way Dex was turning to face Bitty right now, if he ever wanted to look him in the eye again.

Bitty cleared his throat. “Well, um. Y’all just let me know if you...need anything.” The floor creaked as he walked back to the stairs. “Y’all be good to each other.” He sounded incredibly serious for someone who’d just walked in on two of his housemates making out. “I’m happy for you, but...well.” Dex closed his eyes. He didn’t have to look at Bitty to know what he meant. With Ransom and Holster gone, Dex and Nursey were now the starting d-men, and if they fucked this up the whole team would suffer.

“And use protection!” Bitty called as he walked down the stairs. He closed the door behind him and the room was quiet, almost stiflingly so. 

Dex straightened up. He wanted to go back to kissing Nursey, to do more than kiss Nursey, but something had changed between them once Bitty left. “What were you gonna do if I didn’t… if this isn’t what I wanted?”

“Doesn’t matter now, does it?” Nursey asked, his thumbs rubbing slow circles over Dex’s hips. When Dex glared at him, he smiled a little sadly. “Probably woulda given my dibs to Whiskey and hoped like hell you didn’t hate me enough to stop playing together.”

Dex nodded slowly. “I wouldn’t have made you move, I don’t think.” Nursey was right, though. It didn’t matter - at least not right now. If this whole thing blew up it would probably be a huge disaster, given their history together. He didn’t even want to think about all the ways this could go wrong, how many different ways everything could fall apart. But Nursey had started this, and Dex hadn’t backed down from any of his challenges yet. He backed away from Nursey, walked over to the bookshelf on the floor which, amazingly, looked like it had survived its crash, and picked up one of the brackets Nursey had dropped.

“Whatever this is, I don’t think I can do this casually,” he said over his shoulder. He focused on a knot in the wood of the scuffed floorboards. He didn’t want to see Nursey’s face if he said he just wanted casual hookups, he really wasn’t looking for a boyfriend, he just wanted to keep it _chill_. Dex didn’t want to tell everyone (though it might be too late for that after the whole Bitty incident), wasn’t even sure if he wanted to walk around holding hands or go on coffee dates together. What he knew he didn’t want was to see Nursey with anybody else, to watch him dance with other people at kegsters or flirt with people during class. He didn’t know if he was ready to share their relationship with everyone, but he definitely did not want to share Nursey with anyone.

“Yeah?” Nursey asked softly, stepping closer to Dex. “That’s surprising, you’re so ‘casual’ about everything else in your life.”

“I’m serious,” Dex said, looking up at Nursey. He expected to see Nursey grinning at him like always, a little smug and teasing. Instead, his expression was soft and unguarded, in a way Dex had never seen him before. 

“So am I,” Nursey said quietly. He stood in front of Dex, his whole body leaning towards him but his hands shoved in the pockets of his shorts. “About you--this--us…I mean...”

“Really?” Dex blurted, surprised. 

“Yes, really,” Nursey said, stepping closer. Dex looked back down at the floor, and now he was looking at Nursey’s bare feet. What an idiot, building anything in bare feet - that was just asking for trouble. Then again, everything involving Nursey was asking for trouble. “What, you’re surprised?” Nursey reached out and wrapped his fingers loosely around Dex’s wrist. Dex finally dragged his gaze up from the floor to Nursey’s face. “I don’t want to share this stupid attic with anybody else. I don’t want to play with anybody else, and it’s no fun fighting with anybody else.” Dex rolled his eyes. “No, hey, I mean - shit.”

“No, I get it,” Dex said. “I just didn’t think you would ever-”

“Well I do,” Nursey cut him off. “A lot.”

Dex stared at him. They shouldn’t work together at all - they were complete opposites, such different people that their first conversation splintered into an argument within thirty seconds, and they still hadn’t stopped fighting, not really. It was who they were, and somehow it had brought them closer. 

“Now that’s settled,” Nursey said, sliding his hands up Dex’s arms and over his shoulders. Dex snorted, because nothing between them would ever be settled, not really. They kept each other on their toes. Dex wrapped his arms around Nursey’s waist and held him there. Suddenly he yanked Nursey against him, Nursey stumbling across the floor and practically falling into Dex. “Asshole,” Nursey laughed before finally kissing him again. Dex pulled Nursey as close to him as he could, forgetting about the stifling heat of the attic. With his hands tight on Dex’s hips, Nursey pushed him backwards in the general direction of the beds, kissing him hungrily and sweeping his thumbs beneath the waistband of his shorts. Dex dropped his hands to Nursey’s ass, grinding their hips together as his back jolted against the bedframe.

“We should,” Nursey was breathing heavily, kissing him between words. Dex slid his tongue into Nursey’s mouth, effectively distracting him for another few moments. “We should just push these together,” Nursey finally said. He had one hand braced on the frame of the top bunk and the other wrapped around Dex’s back, fingers pressing a hot line up his spine as he kissed down Dex’s neck.

“Wouldn’t work,” Dex said, rolling his hips slowly against Nursey’s. They were both half-hard, each grind of their hips creating a heady friction. “There’d be a… oh.” Nursey licked a stripe down Dex’s chest, kissing down his stomach to his left hip where he bit a vicious hickey, kissing the spot softly. Dex tried to remember what he’d been saying. “A huge gap between the mattresses.” Nursey hooked his fingers into Dex’s shorts and swiftly pulled them down, leaving Dex hard against the soft fabric of his boxers, shoulders shaking against the bedframe at the sight of Nursey on his knees in front of him.

“Guess we’ll have to figure something else out,” Nursey said, mouthing at Dex’s dick through his boxers. Dex couldn’t have figured out basic math at the moment, let alone whatever they had been talking about. Nursey pulled down Dex’s boxers and wrapped his lips around his dick. Dex’s hands flailed through the air as he reached for support behind him until Nursey grabbed his wrist and dragged Dex’s hand into his hair. Nursey wrapped his other hand around the base of his dick and took him further in his mouth, and Dex knew this wouldn’t last long. Nursey worked out a rhythm bringing his lips to his fingers, sucking at the tip as he pulled back. Dex pulled in a shuddering breath and tightened his fingers in Nursey’s thick hair. When Nursey groaned low in his throat, Dex _felt_ it, and that was what pushed him over the edge. 

“Nursey, _Nursey_ ,” he warned, loosening his grip in his hair and pushing gently at Nursey’s shoulder, but Nursey swallowed around him. Dex groaned when he came, knees shaking and eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, Nursey had pulled off him and dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping away spit and a few drops of Dex’s come. Dex stared, trying to commit everything about this moment to memory until he realized Nursey had shoved his own shorts down and had wrapped a hand around himself, stroking quickly.

“No, hey, wait,” he said, sinking to his knees and tightening his hand around Nursey’s. Nursey hooked his free hand around Dex’s neck to pull him in for a kiss, missing his mouth completely and breathing hotly on his chin. Dex caught Nursey’s lips in a kiss, sliding his tongue across Nursey’s lips and into his mouth and tasting himself, kissing him even harder. Nursey lost his balance and fell over backwards, dragging Dex to the floor on top of him. He barely managed to catch himself, their legs tangled together and Dex’s forearm braced next to Nursey’s head.

“Dex,” Nursey breathed, “Dex, Dex.” The way he said his name, broken and stretched out to several syllables, unwound something in Dex’s chest. He stroked him faster, Nursey rocking his hips against Dex’s stomach. Nursey hooked his leg around Dex’s thigh and pulled him down even closer, until there was almost no space between them. The only light in the attic slanted in through the window, casting half of Nursey’s face in shadow where he lay under him. The rest of him was washed in gold light, threaded through his dark hair and bringing out the green in his eyes, half-closed with pleasure. He was so attractive Dex can’t quite believe he’s not dreaming, but his dreams have never been so vivid. 

Dex dropped his head to press open-mouthed kisses against Nursey’s lips. “Nursey,” he whispered, twisting his wrist as he stroked him. Nursey moaned something that sounded suspiciously like Dex’s name when he came all over their hands and stomachs. Because Nursey’s arm was still hooked around Dex’s neck, he finally succeeded in dragging Dex flush against him. He gave up the fight for the moment and lay his head on Nursey’s chest, listening to his heartbeat slow back to normal.

“Not bad, Poindexter,” Nursey chirped. Dex whipped his head up to stare at Nursey, who was smiling softly at him. “Chill, I’m kidding,” he said, trying to kiss him.

“Fuckin’ better be,” Dex muttered. He held himself over Nursey, just out of his reach.

“Dexy. Babe,” Nursey said. His eyes were bright and happy in a way Dex had never seen before. “You’re perfect.” Dex smiled and ducked his head, kissing Nursey deeply until he realized the mess between them was drying stickily. Dex rolled off to the side and flung his arm out, reaching for anything to clean himself off. He ended up grabbing Nursey’s tank top, wiping himself down before giving it to Nursey.

“Hey,” he protested when he realized what it was.

“Chill,” Dex said, grinning. “It’s not like you don’t have fifteen more of them.”

“Dude,” Nursey said, insulted.

“You have a ridiculous collection of tanks,” Dex said.

“Sun’s out, guns out,” Nursey replied, not missing a beat. Dex groaned and halfheartedly hit his side. Nursey grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together. “What if we get rid of the bunk beds and get one big bed instead?”

“Sounds like you’re getting a little ahead of yourself,” Dex said. He definitely wanted to have sex with Nursey again, and he could see how the bunk beds could be a bit challenging - hell, they were still sprawled out on the floor, still in the process of unpacking and moving into the room. But it would be almost impossible getting a bigger mattress up two flights of stairs, and it would take up a ton of space they didn’t really have.

“Nah, bro,” Nursey said, “I saw an awesome bed at IKEA, it’ll be great.”

“Oh, fuck no,” Dex said, rolling to his side to look at Nursey. “We are _not_ going through that shit again.”

Nursey laughed. “Well, I guess we’ll figure something out.”

Dex kissed him again, just because he could, because the way he said “we” reminded him they’d be living together here for two years, because they might never stop bickering but now those fights would devolve into making out, because Nursey’s mouth was slick and red and Dex would never get tired of kissing him. “Yeah, we will,” he said. “We should probably get up, though. Bitty’ll kill us if we’re late for team dinner.”

“He’ll know why we’re late, though,” Nursey said, grinning wickedly. Dex rolled his eyes and pushed himself to his feet, stepping over the bookcase, still in pieces in the middle of the floor and picking up his clothes from where they’d been flung around the room. He grabbed a hat from on top of his desk and covered his hair, messed up past the point of being fixable. Nursey finally stood up and stumbled around the room, digging a new shirt out of his half-unpacked suitcase. They met up near the door at the top of the stairs. Nursey grabbed the hat from Dex’s head and ruffled his hair even more, putting the hat on his own head instead.

“Your hair looks good,” he said. “Should wear it like that more often.”

Dex briefly considered trying to take his hat back, but didn’t like the probability that Nursey would end up knocking both of them down the stairs. “Might need some help with that,” he said instead, kissing Nursey and yanking down the collar of his shirt until the hickey he’d left was completely visible. Grinning, he walked downstairs and felt Nursey staring at him for several seconds before following him. 

When they reached the living room, Tango and Whiskey were on the couch that Bitty had covered in a slipcover in an attempt to make it less disgusting. Both of them stared at Nursey and Dex. A few seconds later, Bitty appeared at the top of the stairs. “Alright, boys, it’s time for dinner,” he called, trailing happily down the stairs as he pocketed his phone. “Oh,” he said when he noticed them in the living room. “Y’all ready to go?”

Tango stared at Nursey, then at Dex, before turning to Bitty curiously. “I thought you said they were moving furniture?” Dex felt himself blush furiously.

“Chill, Tango,” Nursey said, “It’s like, super hard to put together a bookshelf. Dex knows what he’s doing, though, so it’s chill.” Bitty was smirking at the two of them, and Dex figured they had about ten seconds before Bitty exploded with something about being happy for them and how nice it was now they were finally getting along. He suspected a pie or two would be in their future, and nice as that would be, he didn’t want that kind of attention.

“Come on,” he said, opening the front door of the Haus. “Let’s get dinner, I’m starving.”

“Sure you don’t wanna get some water first?” Bitty asked as he walked through the door. “Y’all look pretty thirsty.”

Dex stared at him and let go of the door in surprise. It swung shut in Nursey’s face. “What the fuck, man!” 

“Sorry, sorry,” Dex hissed, letting the rest of the team get a few paces ahead of them. “Eric Bittle is gonna chirp us for the rest of our _lives_.”

Nursey shrugged and bumped his shoulder against Dex’s. “Better make it worth his time, then,” he said. Dex bumped him back and brushed the backs of their hands together. 

“Guess so,” Dex said. “Not that much, though. We should start locking the door.” Nursey smiled like that was the best idea he’d ever heard and this, whatever this was, just might be better than fighting.

They did finish putting the bookshelf together, eventually. It’s a little dinged up and Dex had to anchor it to the wall before Nursey accidentally knocked it over, but it made both of them smile. Nursey was still trying to convince him to get a bigger bed. Dex figured they wouldn’t really be them if they weren’t arguing about something, even if now their arguments almost always ended in kisses. Dex had stopped keeping score a while ago, but it felt like both of them were winning.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written smut before? so I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading; feel free to come say hi on my cp! [sideblog](http://jayzimmboni.tumblr.com/) where I mostly scream about these two dorks.


End file.
